Ok, so this is completely unrelated to the chapter and more like random trivia, but I mentally sorted the main characters into Hogwarts houses! So, if everyone in this story went to Hogwarts, these are the houses they'd be in:

Rowan and Rebecca are Gryffindor. I don't feel like I even need to explain these two.
Shea is Ravenclaw. Again, I feel like this one is fairly obvious.
Pierce is in Hufflepuff.
Spirit and Todd are in Slytherin. Todd's placement shouldn't be surprising, but the reasoning for Spirit is that she is a very driven and ambitious girl - her goal is to save the world, after all. While she cares about life and loves humanity, she really is willing to go to any means to achieve her goal.

Kratos isn't my character so I'm not as confident in his placement. I'm torn between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, leaning towards Hufflepuff. He definitely lacks the brash, reckless streak characteristic to Gryffindor, and I feel that if he had the ambition and desire for greatness to be in Slytherin, he wouldn't have been content to remain at Mithos' side for so many years. That was his whole problem - he didn't like Mithos' plan but didn't really know what else to do about it. The reason I'm leaning towards Hufflepuff more than Ravenclaw is that even though Kratos is intelligent, his seems more like the common sense and knowledge gained through hard work and experience, and less of the witty, creative cleverness of Ravenclaw. Also, loyalty is a defining trait of Hufflepuff, and Kratos remained loyal to Mithos far longer than he should have. So anyway, that's why I think he's Hufflepuff. I'm sure a lot of people disagree because poor Hufflepuff house doesn't have a very good reputation.

Anyway, on with the chapter.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Adrift

Sunlight streamed through the circular window of the cabin. The storm was finally over, and the rollicking movement of the boat had calmed down. Spirit packed up the deck of cards she'd been playing solitaire with when she heard Rebecca yawn and sit up.

"Morning." Rebecca said, rubbing her eyes. "Have a good night?"

Spirit shrugged. She'd spent the whole night playing cards in the girls' room. It turned out to be just her and Rebecca's room, because Shea hadn't come to bed. Spirit assumed she was off with Rowan somewhere, as always. She heard footsteps in the hall outside as the rest of the group woke up.

Rebecca sat on her bed and brushed her hair. It was nice to think that they'd be in a big city today. After spending so much time travelling through the wilderness, spending the day in Fidalia would be a nice break.

Rebecca had just started braiding her hair when Spirit heard a shout. Footsteps stomped down the hall, and then Pierce shouted Rowan's name. Curious, Spirit opened the door and poked her head out. Remiel stood in the hall, looking around nervously and clenching his hands together. Pierce stood in the common area in front of the table, looking baffled.

"It's not a very large boat," Pierce said. "There aren't any hiding places."

He caught sight of Spirit down the hall, and she held up a pad of paper with a question mark scribbled on it.

"I don't want to alarm you, Spirit," Pierce said, "but Rowan and Shea appear to be missing."

Missing? How could you go missing on a boat? Like Pierce had said, it wasn't a very large boat. There was nowhere to hide, and why would they be hiding anyway? He would have heard Pierce shouting his name, and he wouldn't keep hiding if he knew he others were looking for him.

Worried, she left the room and climbed up to the deck. Todd sat at the steering wheel, and she walked up to him and held up her notepad. What happened?

"Oh, hi, Spirit," Todd said. "I came up early this morning because I figured Rowan would need a break and chance to sleep, but I didn't see him up here." He frowned. "There was no one at the controls, so I took over and figured he'd gone to sleep and didn't tell anyone. But now he's nowhere to be seen, and Shea's gone, too."

Pierce, Rebecca, and Remiel climbed up to the deck. "They aren't on the boat," Pierce said. "Unless they've somehow turned themselves both invisible and intangible, I think we're going to have to accept the fact that they're not here."

"The life preserver's missing," Rebecca said, pointing to the empty hook on the side of the boat. She leaned over the railing and stared down at the water. "Do you think they… had an accident?"

Spirit shook her head. How could this be happening? Last night everything was fine, and now Rowan and Shea were missing? It was ridiculous.

"Maybe… one of them fell overboard," Rebecca said. "And the other jumped in with the life preserver, but maybe it wasn't tied tight enough and slipped off…"

They stared at the empty hook, the reality of their situation sinking in. It seemed impossible, but there could be no denying that Rowan and Shea were not on the boat. There was nothing around them for miles by open water, so there wasn't anywhere else that they could be. Spirit quickly wrote on her paper and held it up for everyone to see. We need to turn back.

Everyone gave her awkward looks, and then stared at the ground. Rebecca slumped into the bench and buried her face in her hands. Todd sat behind the steering wheel, staring ahead with a stoic expression, making no move to turn back.

Spirit shook her paper and stamped her foot. She wished she could speak because she needed to shout. Why weren't they listening? If Rowan and Shea had fallen overboard, they needed to turn back and pick them up!

"Spirit," Pierce said, "I don't think that will help."

Of course it would help! Rowan and Shea were in trouble, and she couldn't believe that the others weren't immediately jumping to action.

"We have no idea how long ago they went missing," Pierce said slowly. "With the storm and the current, we have no idea how far they've drifted away from us, assuming they're…"

He trailed off, but Spiritua knew what he had been about to say. Assuming they're still alive. They could have drowned by now. But wasn't the risk of drowning more of a reason why they needed to turn back and look for them?

"I'm sorry, Spirit," Pierce said. "I don't think finding them is going to be possible. It just isn't feasible to try and find two small people somewhere in this vast ocean."

She stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. Don't you dare say it, she thought.

"I'm afraid that we're going to have to assume that they're… gone."

'Gone' was obviously a last-second substitute for 'dead.' Spiritua wasn't buying it. They had to still be alive. Rowan was a strong swimmer, and they had the life preserver, so there was still a chance…

She pulled out her wings. If the others weren't willing to turn the boat around, then she'd just find them herself. She started to take off, but before she got very far, Pierce grabbed her ankle.

"Spiritua, sit down!" he shouted.

She was so shocked by the furious edge to his voice that her wings vanished and she dropped to the ground.

"What exactly is your plan?" Pierce asked. "Are you just going to fly around, hoping to see them? What will you do when you grow tired and need to land? What will you do if you do find them, and need to carry two people in your tired state? How can you expect to find them when you have countless miles of open water to search?"

The reality of their situation weighed down on her. Of course Pierce was right. Her chance of finding Rowan and Shea drifting in the ocean, still alive, were so small she didn't know if anyone had invented a fraction small enough to convey it. There wasn't a way to bring them back. They were gone. Just gone. Everything had been going fine and then in an instant the people she cared about were snatched away forever. It was just like when Dad died, or when she found out she'd never get to go home and see her mother again, or when Kratos had abruptly returned to Welgaia. She had even lost the fake people from the future that would never be. Now she'd lost Rowan and Shea too, and she didn't know how much more of this she could take.

She pressed her face against Pierce's chest. Why did people keep leaving? She was the one who had to die; she was supposed to leave them. Pierce hugged her back, but it didn't do much to sooth her. She'd written that letter to Rowan, but she doubted he even found it, let alone read it, so he probably had no idea that she wasn't still angry at him about their dad. She wanted to curl up into a ball and go back in time to when Kratos first showed up to tell her she was the Chosen. "You need to pick someone else," she would say this time.

She took a few deep, ragged breaths, and then pushed herself up from Pierce's embrace. She couldn't let herself fall apart like this. She was the Chosen, and she needed to regenerate the world. Maybe it was a good thing that everyone she loved kept disappearing. If she didn't have anyone left she cared about, it wouldn't be so hard to leave this world.

Lloyd, Genis, and Colette lay on one of the narrow twin beds in the hotel room. There wasn't much room for all three of them, and Genis was a bit squished between them, but they made it work. The three old friends were just happy to be together again. They hadn't been apart for that long, but it had been much longer than they'd ever been separated before.

The hotel room was quiet, for the most part. Kratos talking was the only noise, as the whole group was content just to sit and relax. The calm stillness was broken by a knock at the door. Presea, sitting closest to the door, rose to answer it. As soon as the newcomer revealed themselves, the entire room burst into noise.

"Raine!" Genis shouted, leaping from the bed.

"You're ok!" Sheena shouted, bolting upright from her slumped position in an armchair.

"Professor Sage!" Lloyd said, following Genis toward her.

Raine smiled and tried to fend everyone off as a massive group hug was initiated around her. Only Regal, Presea, and Kratos stayed out of it, although Zelos seemed to have ulterior motives when he circled around the group to join the hug behind Sheena.

"Everyone, calm down," she said. "Yes, I'm alright, thanks to you. I can't thank you enough for your help."

"Of course we helped," Sheena said. "You're our friend."

"Yeah," Lloyd said. "We'd do anything to help you."

"So they just let you out?" Genis said.

Raine nodded. "They said they had found the true culprit and that I was free to go."

The group dispersed, returning to their former positions. Raine sat down at the foot of the bed. "So what are you going to do now, Raine?" Sheena asked.

"The same thing we were doing before," she said. She glanced at her brother and said, "Genis and I will continue our journey to spread half-elf awareness. This experience only proves more than ever how important it is."

"The rest of us," Kratos said, "can continue our own journeys."

"I have matters to attend to back in Altamira," Regal said. "We should leave tomorrow and head back to our own business."

Lloyd looked down at the bedspread. Now that Raine was taken care of, they were back to Kratos' imminent departure. He was glad that Raine was safe, but now that she was no longer in trouble, he couldn't deny that he'd kind of enjoyed it, in a way. It was nice to have the whole group back together and on another adventure. He'd gotten so used to saving the world that after it was saved, life had seemed rather dull.

"Not until tomorrow, at least," Zelos said. "I don't know about you guys, but there's no way I'm travelling any more tonight."

Regal nodded. "We can depart tomorrow morning."

"Oh, Professor," Colette said, "we need to fill you in on the story Kratos has been telling! It's about Spiritua and it's very exciting."

"It might take a while to summarize every event so far," Kratos said.

"We'll give you the key points," Lloyd said, "and then Dad can continue where we left off."

Rowan never thought that he would get tired of looking out at the ocean, but now he was sick of it. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but water. This morning was a slight improvement on the night, because now that the rain had stopped there was no longer water when he looked up. The most infuriating part was that amid all this endless water, he couldn't drink a single thing.

Shea slowly cracked her eyes open. Her face wasn't very far away from his, since they were clinging to the same life preserver. They'd tied the rope around their waists to make sure they didn't get separated, but so far they'd managed to keep their arms locked to the floating ring. Rowan's arms were stiff and his fingers numb from doing this, but it was better than drifting without a floatation device.

"Are we actually still alive?" Shea asked, looking around. "Or is heaven just really, really blue?"

"Too sore to be dead," Rowan said. It was the first time he'd talked in hours, and his throat was parched, making his voice dry and crackly. Shea had fallen asleep sometime in the night, but Rowan had been up all night, thinking.

Shea shifted her weight , sending Rowan's elbow into the water. He was too tired to get frustrated at her. "If we survive this," she said, "you're never allowed to make fun of my hatred for the ocean again."

"I think I'm going to join you in that hatred," Rowan said. "I suppose we should be thankful I know how to swim."

"Why wouldn't you?" Shea asked.

He shrugged. "A lot of sailors don't."

She looked at him in confusion. "Sailors don't know how to swim? Isn't that like being a chef who has no idea what to do if something catches fire?"

"No," Rowan said, "it's because a lot of sailors figure that knowing how to swim will only prolong the inevitable, and they'd rather drown right away than tread water for hours, since survival is…uh…" he trailed off when he realized that this probably wouldn't help.

"I don't know if you were trying to give me encouragement, but if so, you suck at it."

Rowan licked his lips. They were dry and cracked from the salt. Dehydration would probably kill them faster than drowning would, but he didn't mention that. He rested his chin on his arms. He'd been running everything that had happened through his head all night, and he felt the need to say, "I'm sorry, Shea. This is my fault." She was going to die out here because of him. He would have kicked himself if he could get a strong enough kick going underwater.

"I'd say it was Todd's fault," she said. "Since he's the one he stabbed you. Geeze, I still can't believe he did that. He always seemed so nice."

"Tell me about it," Rowan grumbled. "He should win an award for acting ability. The award is a fist to the face."

"What happened, anyway?" Shea asked. "Why did he suddenly stab you?"

Rowan looked away, knowing Shea would disapprove of this. "I – I tried to turn the ship around. So that we wouldn't go to the Tower and Spirit would die." He winced, knowing what to expect and also knowing that he deserved it.

"Rowan!" Shea shouted in exasperation. "I told you to stay out of it!"

"I know!" he shouted back. "I know it was stupid, ok? I wasn't thinking straight. I just – I just didn't want to lose her."

Shea's expression softened. "You can't run her life forever."

"I know," he mumbled. "But, the thing is, when Dad died, he told me to take care of her. So, I did. I practically defined myself around my ability to stand in for Dad and be the man of the house and look after her and my mom. So then… if she doesn't need me anymore… or if she dies and isn't even here anymore… then who am I?"

Shea reached out and rested a hand on his arm. "You're you. There's more to you than just being someone's brother."

"I don't know how to be." He buried his head into his arms. "I want to punch my younger self for setting me up with all these stupid ideas and instincts. I know that Spirit is a strong and capable young woman, but I can't seem to make myself see her like that. Just like I know that Todd is awful because he's a traitorous, lying, backstabbing piece of shit, but I can't stop these thoughts that keep telling me that it's because he's a half-elf. And I know that that's bullshit and that it's cutting Todd slack to blame what he did on his race and not on his awful personal decisions, but I can't make these thoughts stop. But I really want to, because I want to stop wasting my time hating people who have never done anything to me when I want to save it all up for the people I really hate. I want to let Spirit make her own decisions. I want to be the guy you deserve without these awful racist thoughts getting in the way. I want to be a better person, but I can't because my stupid subconscious is even more pigheaded and stubborn than I am!"

He sank deeper into the water, with only his head and arms still above the surface. "I'm sorry," he said. "This is all my fault. Todd never would have attacked me if I hadn't tried to turn the ship around and I dragged you into this. I'm such an idiot. Todd was right; everyone's probably better off if I just drown."

"What are you doing?" Shea snapped. "Are you just giving up?"

He didn't answer.

"I've never seen you quit anything."

And look where that had gotten him. His stubborn refusal to accept that Spiritua needed to complete this journey and he had to stop babying her and gotten them both thrown overboard.

"Stop it, Rowan." Her voice was hoarse, with a bit of an edge to it that wasn't just the dehydration. "You're scaring me."

When he kept his head down and still didn't answer, she shouted, "Would you pull yourself together, you stupid bastard?!"

He raised his head a bit, surprised at her sudden fury.

"Ok, I get it, you screwed up. I'm not going to lie and say you didn't. We all do stupid things and make stupid decisions, and maybe you did more than most. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to roll over and drown? That isn't going to fix the things you effed up! If you're as messed up as you claim, then you don't deserve to take the easy way out. You've got to live so you can fix things!"

Rowan empathized with the sailors who didn't want to know how to swim. It made things easier. If their ship went down, someone who couldn't swim didn't have to decide whether it was worth trying to swim for shore. They didn't have to struggle to survive and tread water for hours until their muscles burned and they were delirious with thirst. Not many of the swimmers survived, either, and they had a much harder time of it than those who immediately gave themselves to the depths.

It would be so easy to stop fighting the water and let it swallow him up so that he wouldn't have to deal with the things he'd done or the struggle to survive out here. The thing was, the sailors who chose not to swim were the cowards. They weren't brave enough to face the harsh price of living, and they ran from it right to their watery graves. Not everyone who swam would reach the shore again, but the ones who did were stronger for it.

He pulled himself out of the water, his muscles shaking with exertion. He pulled himself up until his whole chest was out of the water, and he leaned on the ring with water dripping all around him, taking deep breaths.

"Rowan?" Shea said.

He looked up at the sky, and saw a bird flying overheard. He followed its path with his eyes, and then pointed in the direction it had come from. "Land is that way."

"How-?"

"Birds fly out to sea in the morning, and back to shore in the evening."

"And you're going to make it to shore with me, right?" Shea asked.

He turned his eyes back to her. "Yeah. We'll make it there together. And then… then I'm going to make up for everything. I have to make it back so I can tell Spirit I support her decision, and I need to tell Pierce that I'm sorry I almost got him killed, and I really need to punch Todd in the face. I did once before, but it was for a stupid reason so I need to make this one count."

Shea smiled. "That's right. We're going to live, dammit. I'm not dying out here when I've still got so much work to do."

Rowan nodded firmly. Then he said, "Will you help me? I know I don't really deserve it, but… I want to be a better person, and I think you're the best person I know."

She smiled. Rowan tried to smile back, but his lips were so cracked it was somewhat painful. "Yeah," Shea said. "We're going to get through this. Together." She leaned across the life preserver, and then kissed him on the cheek.

Rowan stared at her in shock. "Shea… what?" He might have blushed, if his cheeks weren't already red from sunburn.

"I didn't think you'd have a problem with that."

"I, uh, I don't," he said. "But I didn't think – I just said that I'm still trying not to be a huge racist asshole to you."

"Right," Shea said. "You're trying, and I can tell. And like I said, I've never known you to give up on something."

"I won't let you down," Rowan said, unable to keep a grin off his face.

"Good. So, do you mind if I kiss you again?"

"I definitely have no problems with that."

Kratos sat on the floor by the warp, looking out at the stars beyond Welgaia. Welgaia was quiet and lonely at times, but you couldn't beat the view. Noishe flew in circles around the huge room, although he seemed to miss the fresh air.

"Ouch!" Yuan shouted, jerking his arm back from the warp and dropping his wrench with a clatter.

"Are you alright?" Kratos asked.

Yuan shook his hand and scowled. "Fine," he grumbled. "Only a little bit electrocuted."

"Not actually electrocuted," Kratos said. "Electrocute specifically means to cause death by electricity. Since you're still alive, it's reasonable to assume you meant you were shocked."

Yuan glared at him, rubbing his hand. "Keep that up and you'll be electrocuted next."

"What are you doing, anyway?"

Yuan picked up his wrench and said, "I'm trying to work out where to put an alternate power source for the warps, so that we can have them out in the world and not just in the Tower."

"An alternate power source?" Kratos asked.

"Yeah. You remember how the warp works, right?"

Kratos stared at him. He was quite sure he remembered Yuan explaining the technology to him one time, but he was also quite sure that it had been less of an explanation and more of a one-side rant about how excited he was to have worked out all the kinks. In any case, Kratos had less of an idea of how warps worked than an ant had of astro-physics. He took a shot in the dark and said, "Because… mana?"

Yuan nodded. "Right. The Tower of Salvation is held together by boatloads of mana, which makes running machinery here a lot easier, because it's like a giant battery. I got the computers to run on external electricity in the ranches, though, so I think if I figure out a way to charge the mechanism in a warp, I can get them to run outside the Tower, too. It's just more difficult because they take a lot more power than a simple computer."

Kratos nodded along as he always did whenever Yuan talked about his electronics. When he was pretty sure Yuan was done, he said, "More importantly, you do know how to put that back together, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Yuan said.

"We're going to need it to send the Tethe'allan Chosen back."

"Don't worry," Yuan said, staring at a few wires with a concentrated expression.

"I suppose Remiel is going to need it to come home, too," Kratos said. He had been a bit surprised to learn that Remiel lived in a different area of Welgaia. He hadn't known anyone else sentient was up here other than Yuan, Mithos, and him. Of course, he wasn't about to go find the man and have a cup of tea with him, but it was interesting to know he was here. "Did you know about Remiel?"

"Nope," Yuan said. "I think Mithos found him fairly recently." He looked up from the warm and said, "That's got to sting, huh? Getting replace by a newbie?"

"Hm," Kratos said. "What I've been dwelling on the most is the question of how Mithos knew that I was no longer keen on finishing the journey." The only person he had talked to about that was Yuan, and he knew Yuan would never go behind his back like that.

"Wait, you mean Mithos didn't tell you?" Yuan looked up.

Kratos narrowed his eyes. "Tell me what?"

"He mentioned it to me after you got back. I thought he told you. He had a spy planted in your group."

This took Kratos by surprise. A spy, huh? That explained how Mithos had known. Everyone in their group would have overheard Spiritua shouting to Rowan that Kratos had offered to abandon the quest. Which one of them had it been? He quickly ran through the companions. Not Shea, who had joined them by their own request; not Pierce, who wouldn't have come at all if they hadn't already requested Shea. He doubted it was Rowan, because no one trying to be subtle would be that aggravatingly annoying, and besides, he'd joined before Mithos had any reason to doubt Kratos' goals. Certainly not Spiritua or Rebecca. "Todd," he said.

Yuan nodded.

Kratos swore. Of course he'd been a mole; no wonder he'd been so keen to join them.

"That's not all," Yuan said. "After Mithos told me, I did some research on the kid. He's a real piece of work. A few years back, humans killed his family. Coincidentally, every member of the group responsible died in horrific accidents over the next few months. A whole family burned to death when their house spontaneously caught fire and they couldn't get the door to open, and one of them apparently hung himself, but who knows how voluntary that 'suicide' was. The three leaders of the attack went on a hunting trip a few months later, and their bodies were found a week later hacked to pieces and burned to a crisp."

Yuan had abandoned any attempt to keep working while recounting this story. "Nothing was ever proven, of course. He was just a kid then, so the idea that they were in such danger from a small, inferior being of a child never even crossed their minds. I don't think it's a coincidence, though." Kratos nodded. If his present day personality was anything to go by, he was excellent at acting non-threatening.

Yuan gave Kratos an apologetic look and added, "Sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I thought you knew."

"And Mithos just left this guy with only Remiel to watch over the group?" Kratos rested his face in his hand. "Is there any guarantee that he hasn't murdered them all in their sleep by now?"

"Well… I don't think he'd harm Spiritua or Rebecca," Yuan said. "And I think he mostly hates humans, so that half-elf girl in your group is probably safe."

"Great," Kratos said. "Just great. How soon can you get that warp working again?"

Yuan looked down at the mess of wires. "Uh… maybe an hour or so. Why? Mithos isn't going to be happy if you go back to Sylvarant during this."

"Then I suppose you had better not tell Mithos I'm going anywhere."

Fidalia was a walled city, with the spire of the temple jutting up from the centre. The harbour was filled with boats and crowds of people pushed and shoved their way around the docks. It was the biggest city in Sylvarant after Carski had fallen at the end of the war, and Spirit was excited to see it in person. She was less excited to see that there was a rather long line to get through the gates at the edge of the dock and into the city proper.

"We have to stand in line just to get into their stupid city?" Rebecca said. They'd docked Dorothy and were intending to find a nice inn to spend the night at before hiking north to the Tower. The long line of people would take at least an hour to get through.

"This is incredibly inconvenient," Remiel said.

"They've probably got a lot of immigrants," Pierce said. "Anyone who can afford the trip here is probably hoping for a better life in the big city."

"A godless life," Remiel said, fluttering his wings indignantly. "The temple up ahead is in honour of Origin, not Martel. There are temples for Summon Spirits all over this city."

"We could always skip the line," Todd said. "The wall isn't too high, and two members of our group can fly."

"Oh, I like that plan," Rebecca said.

Pierce frowned. "That's rather a breach of security…"

"Maybe we can use it as an opportunity to teach them how to defend against people with wings?" Rebecca said.

"Now that's ridiculous," Remiel said. "The only people with wings are the angels of Cruxis, and why would anyone need to fight them?"

Spiritua held up her paper. Let's fly over. She didn't feel like wasting her time standing in line. It probably wasn't even a proper line, just the fact that there were a lot of people trying to get through a single small gate.

Pierce seemed unhappy but reluctantly agreed. They made sure they found a patch of wall far from the gate, blocked from view by a stack of crates. Spirit carried Rebecca and Remiel carried Pierce, and then Remiel went back for Todd. On the other side of the wall was an alley, but there was a busy street ahead of them.

"Wow," Rebecca said. "It's been a while since I was in a city like this."

Spirit held up her paper. Is Meltokio like this?

Rebecca nodded. "Yeah, but it's even bigger. There's a huge castle in the middle where the royal family lives."

Spiritua nodded and smiled. Meltokio sounded like a beautiful city, and she wished she'd have a chance to see it one day.

When Remiel and Todd arrived, they walked to the edge of the alley and found themselves on a busy main street. "Alright, everyone," Remiel said, clasping his hands together, "we're going to spend the night in the city, so we don't have anything to do for the rest of the afternoon."

"There are some supplies we should stock up on, just in case we run into trouble on the way to the Tower," Pierce said.

"Like what?" Rebecca asked.

With his face as straight as he could manage, he said, "Gels. We need to stock up, because… we don't have a healer."

Spirit looked at the ground. Every time she let herself think about Rowan and Shea, despair threatened to rise up and overwhelm her.

Rebecca was the first to force the conversation to move forward. "Alright. We'll do that first and then explore the city a bit later. That good with everyone?"

"I think I'm just going to grab a bite to eat at the inn and wait for you guys here," Todd said. "I'm kind of tired."

"Alright," Pierce said, "then we shall see you here this evening."

"What time is it?"

Rowan looked up at the sun. "After noon," he croaked.

They clung to the life preserver, all energy drained. They'd aimed themselves at what they thought was the direction of shore and tried swimming that way, but it didn't seem like they made much progress. They were lucky the water was fairly warm, so they weren't worried about hypothermia. It would probably get cold once the sun went down, but the burning sun had done such a fine job of turning his face bright red that he welcomed the idea of sunset. He saw a large cloud on the horizon. Clouds like that formed over land. He was pretty sure that was the direction they'd tried swimming in earlier, but he couldn't be sure.

"Can you do any water magic?" Rowan asked.

Shea raised her head a bit. "No. Why?"

"'Cause you could summon water and then we could drink."

"Oh. Sorry. I only know healing magic."

"Let's swim for a bit," Rowan said.

"I'm so tired." Shea didn't even lift her head from her arms.

"We're only going to get more tired. Come on, we need to try and push ourselves to shore before we're too exhausted to move."

Shea took a deep breath, and then shifted her position so that she was on the same side as Rowan. Together, they kicked their legs and moved forward. It felt like his legs were made of lead. Every kick was exhausting, but he kept his eyes on the cloud and told himself that the next kick would bring them in view of land.

Any time now, he kept saying. Land will come into view. Next kick. Next kick. They could do this, because he wasn't going to die out here.

Twenty minutes later, they had to give up and rest. Rowan's stomach growled, and he was acutely aware that he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday evening. He hadn't had anything to drink in that long, either. How long could you go without water? Three days? It simply wasn't fair that he could be this thirsty and this wet at the same time.

"Hey, Shea?" he said.

She raised her head a bit and grunted.

"I was thinking. Kratos said that after Spirit regenerates the world, I'll be a famous important Chosen heir or something." He shifted his weight and tried to get more comfortable, but that was a fruitless effort. "I thought, maybe if I become rich like Rebecca is, then I could give it to you."

Shea frowned. "What? I don't want to take your money, Rowan."

Rowan shook his head. "No, not just for you. For your doctor's practice. You always had to steal to fund it right? Well, I could give you the money I get for the Chosen thing and you can use that to take care of sick people." He rested his chin on his hands. "Think of it like… a charity hospital funded by the Chosen." He smiled, a motion which hurt his chapped lips. "I think she'd like that."

Shea smiled too. "You're right. I think she would."

He saw anther bird in the sky. It was flying toward them, but at this time of day, birds would be flying in all directions to catch fish so it didn't necessarily mean land was close. It was still pretty far away, regardless. Or, wait, it was close, it was just very small. It was much smaller than a typical seabird.

The bird made a beeline for them, fluttering to a stop and then perching on the edge of the life preserver. It was a small canary with white and green feathers, and it cocked its head to the side and stared at them with intelligent eyes. Rowan grinned, and a flicker of hope sparked to life.